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Shazam
This page is for the New Earth version of Captain Marvel, for other versions go here. History Origin William "Billy" Batson was separated from his sister Mary following the death of their parents and left in the care of their uncle Ebenezer, his father's half-brother. Unfortunately, Ebenezer threw Billy out and stole the youth's trust fund money which had been set aside for Billy's care and welfare. Left penniless and homeless, Billy eked out a sorrowful existence in Fawcett City as a newsboy. For shelter, he often slept in the subway terminals. One night, a mysterious stranger - later revealed to be the spirit of Billy's father - convinced Billy to follow him deep into the subway tunnels. There, Billy found a marvelous train decorated in hieroglyphics and mystic runes. Billy and the stranger rode the train deep into the bowles of the earth and arrived in a cavern that held statues epitomizing the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, including Envy, Lust, Greed, Pride, Wrath, Sloth, and Gluttony. Within the cavern, Billy met the ancient wizard Shazam, a champion of mankind for thousands of years. Withered with age, Shazam sat on a throne poised benaeth a giant stone block suspended above him as if by magic. There, the ancient wizard revealed that he had selected Billy to be his champion to fight for good as the "strongest and mightiest man in the world--Captain Marvel!" To that end, Shazam ordered Billy to speak his name, which was actually an acronym for various legendary figures who had agreed to grant aspects of themselves to a willing subject: S''' - for the wisdom of Solomon '''H - for the strength of Hercules A''' - for the stamina of Atlas '''Z - for the power of Zeus (which enhances all Marvel's other physical abilities and allows for interdimensional travel) A''' - for the courage of Achilles (which would include invulnerability from ancient mythology) '''M - for the speed of Mercury (and, by extension, the power to fly) Billy then said the wizard's name, and was immediately struck by a magic lightning bolt, turning him into Captain Marvel, an adult superhero. He then learned that he has only to speak the word again to be instantly changed back into Billy. With that, Shazam was immediately killed by the large granite block that fell from above his throne. Billy vowed to fulfill his bestowed role. Whenever he needed advice, Billy could light a brazier near Shazam's throne, summoning the wizard's ghost. Marvel's first call to duty was saving the world from the evil mad scientist, Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, who threatened to silence radio forever unless he was paid a large sum of money. Resuming his regular form, Billy told WHIZ radio mogul Sterling Morris that he could stop the Radio Silencer and Sivana; a disbelieving Morris offered Billy a job on the air if he could do so. After finding the crooks' hideout, Billy transformed into Captain Marvel, destroyed Sivana's radio silencing machine and apprehended his henchmen. Sivana escaped, setting the stage for a long line of future confrontations. Marvel transformed back into Billy, who presented the captured criminals and destroyed Radio Silencer to Sterling Morris. True to his word, Sterling Morris made Billy an on-air news reporter for WHIZ radio. Through his adventures, he soon gained a host of enemies, including Adolf Hitler's champion Captain Nazi, an older Egyptian renegade Marvel called Black Adam, an evil magic-powered brute named Ibac, and an artificially intelligent nuclear-powered robot called Mister Atom. The most notorious Captain Marvel villains, however, were the nefarious Mister Mind and his Monster Society Of Evil, which recruited several of Marvel's previous adversaries. In the early 1940s, Captain Marvel also gained allies in The Marvel Family, a collective of superheroes with similar powers and costumes to Captain Marvel's. (By comparison, Superman spin-off character Superboy first appeared in 1944, while Supergirl first appeared in 1959). Early on marked the debut of the Lieutenant Marvels, the alter egos of three other boys who found that, by saying "Shazam!" in unison, they too could become Marvels. Soon a friend named Freddy Freeman, mortally wounded by an attack from Captain Nazi, was given the power to become teenage boy superhero Captain Marvel, Jr.. Eventually Billy and Freddy met Billy's long-lost twin sister Mary Bromfield, who discovered she could, by saying the magic word "Shazam", become teenage superheroine Mary Marvel. The first post-Crisis appearance of Captain Marvel was in the 1986 Legends miniseries. In 1987, Captain Marvel appeared as a member of the Justice League. That same year, he was also given his own miniseries, Shazam! The New Beginning. With the four-issue miniseries, writers Roy and Dann Thomas and artist Tom Mandrake attempted to re-launch the Captain Marvel mythos and bring the wizard Shazam, Doctor Sivana, Uncle Dudley, and Black Adam into the modern DC Universe with an altered origin story. In this miniseries, both Sivana and Dudley were Billy Batson's real uncles, who fought over the custody for the boy after his parents were killed (by Sivana) in a car accident. Black Adam is also present in the story as Sivana's partner in crime. The most notable change that Thomas and Justice League writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis introduced into the Captain Marvel mythos was that the personality of young Billy Batson is retained when he transforms into the Captain (classic-era comics tended to treat Captain Marvel and Billy as two separate personalities). This change would remain for all future uses of the character as justification for his sunny, Golden-Age personality in the darker modern-day comic book world. (Captain Marvel's Justice League teammate Guy Gardner often jokingly referred to the innocent, pure-hearted Captain as "Captain Whitebread"). Another notable change in this version was the relocation of the Shazam characters from Fawcett City to San Francisco. The Power of Shazam In this version of the story, Billy's parents - archaeologists C. C. and Marylin Batson - were killed by their treacherous assistant, Theo Adam, while on a dig at the tomb of Rameses II at Abu Simbel, Egypt. Theo Adam was the resurrected non-powered form of Teth-Adam aka Black Adam. He also kidnaps Billy's sister Mary, who ends up missing. The wizard Shazam is made aware of all of these events, and (just as in the Fawcett origin) has Billy brought before him by the dark-clothed stranger, and grants the boy the power to become Captain Marvel. As Captain Marvel, Billy takes on the form of his late father, which is how Theo Adam guesses his identity, has a revelation about the power of Shazam, and becomes Black Adam using a scarab he stole from the tomb. After subduing Black Adam and his employer, the rich tycoon Doctor Sivana, Billy swears to find his sister as Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel became a member of the revived Justice Society of America and was featured prominently in that group alongside his nemesis Black Adam. Captain Marvel had originally joined the team to keep an eye on Adam, who had joined the JSA claiming to have reformed. Black Adam eventually left the JSA to instigate a takeover of his home country of Kahndaq; he had a fondess for the country, and wished to see the totalitarian regime done away in what he saw as justice. Captain Marvel remained with the team. During his tenure in the JSA, Marvel dated Courtney Whitmore, also known as Stargirl, which put him in an unusual position; while he could legally date Courtney as Billy Batson, it looked very strange for the grown-up Captain Marvel to be with the teenaged Stargirl. The Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, another JSA member, confronted Marvel about the issue. Rather than telling Garrick and the team the truth about his age, Marvel chose to follow the Wisdom of Solomon and leave the team and Courtney. The Marvel Family played an integral part the Infinite Crisis. The climax of the Day of Vengeance saw the Spectre engaged in a cosmic-level battle with the wizard Shazam. At the conclusion of this battle, Shazam was obliterated, and the Rock of Eternity burst apart into Earth's dimension, freeing scores of ancient magicks and evils that had been captured eons ago back into the Universe. In a later Day of Vengeance one-shot special, Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family then helped Zatanna and several other beings to capture the Seven Deadly Sins and rebuild the Rock of Eternity. Captain Marvel was then required to take over Shazam's role as caretaker of the Rock. Marvel was later shown fulfilling this role, although teetering on the brink of sanity, constantly talking back to the Seven Sins around him. During this time, Marvel was shown helping Black Adam grant Adrianna Tomaz the powers of the goddess Isis. Later that year, Captain Marvel presided at the marriage ceremony of Adam and Isis in Kahndaq. Black Adam's continued attempts to reform, and depicted Adam's formation of, with Captain Marvel's blessing, a "Black Marvel Family". Joining Black Adam in the Black Marvel Family were his wife Isis and her brother Osiris. Isis and Osiris are murdered by the "Four Horsemen", creatures engineered by a team of DC's mad scientist characters (Dr. Sivana among them). As a result, Black Adam takes his revenge out on the entire world, killing millions. Black Adam is halted for a few minutes, just the time needed for Captain Marvel to force a magic lightning bolt on him, turning Black Adam back to Teth-Adam and changing his magic word into an unknown one. ''Trials of Shazam! Batson in his adult Marvel form now with long white hair, has advanced to the role of the wizard Shazam after his one-time associate Freddy Freeman (formerly Captain Marvel, Jr.) successfully proved himself worthy of the powers of Captain Marvel as role of magic guardian of the Earth dimension by successfully overcoming the series of trials of the gods. Batson had been removed from his position as New Earth Guardian of Magic by Black Adam as part of Adam's plan to recover his dead wife Isis against Felix Faust. (Justice Society (Vol 3) #23). Depowered of his Lord Marvel powers and abilities, Batson sided with his sister Mary who accepted the evil powers of Black Adam and became an evil "Captain Marvel". Both Batson and his sister Mary were stripped of their magical powers by the reconstituted Wizard Shazam (Justice Society (Vol 3) #25). It remains to be seen if Batson will be trusted again by the Wizard Shazam and recover his Marvel powers or remain permanently depowered. Powers and Abilities When Billy Batson says the magic word "Shazam!" and transforms into Captain Marvel, he is granted the following powers: In the ''Trials of Shazam! mini-series (2006-2008), Captain Marvel assumed Shazam's throne at the Rock of Eternity, (under the name Marvel), and had access to all of the dead wizard's magical powers. However, Marvel was required to remain on the Rock of Eternity and could only be away from the Rock for twenty-four hours at a time. In Other Media ''The Adventures of Captain Marvel'' film serial The first filmed adaptation of Captain Marvel was produced in 1941. The Adventures of Captain Marvel, starring Tom Tyler in the title role and Frank Coghlan Jr. as Billy Batson, was a twelve-part film serial produced by Republic Pictures in 1941. Often ranked among the finest examples of the form, its release made Captain Marvel the first superhero to be depicted in film. Whitey Murphy, a supporting character in the serial, found his way into Fawcett's Captain Marvel stories, and elements of the serial's plot were later worked into DC's The Power of Shazam continuity. The Adventures of Captain Marvel (which, ironically, was originally pitched to National Comics as a Superman film serial) predated Fleischer Studios' Superman cartoons by six months. ''Shazam!'' on Saturday morning and other TV appearances Over thirty years later, Filmation produced Shazam!, a live-action television show which ran from 1974 to 1977 on CBS. From 1975 until the end of its run, it aired as one-half of The Shazam!/Isis Hour, featuring Filmation's own The Secrets of Isis as a companion program. The Shazam! TV show was a more indirect approach to the character; it told of Billy Batson/Captain Marvel making road trips, instead of flying across the USA to combat evil. Shazam! starred Michael Gray as Billy Batson, with both Jackson Bostwick (season one) and John Davey (seasons two and three) as Captain Marvel. Instead of the wizard Shazam, Billy was given instructions by the animated "Immortal Elders" Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury (but mostly Solomon). An adapted version of Isis, the heroine of The Secrets of Isis, was introduced into DC Comics in 2006 as Black Adam's wife in the weekly comic book series 52. Shortly after the Shazam! show ended its network run, Captain Marvel, played by Garrett Craig, appeared as a character in a pair of low-budgeted live action comedy specials, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions under the name Legends of the Superheroes in 1978. The specials also featured Howard Morris as Doctor Sivana, and Ruth Buzzi as Aunt Minerva, marking the first appearance of those characters in film or television. Filmation revisited the character a few years later for an animated Shazam! cartoon, which ran on NBC from 1981 to 1982 as part of the Kid Superpower Hour with Shazam!. The rest of the Marvel Family joined Captain Marvel on his adventures in this series, which were more similar to his comic-book adventures than the 1970s TV show. Dr. Sivana, Mr. Mind, Black Adam, and other familiar Captain Marvel foes appeared as enemies. Although Captain Marvel did not appear in Hanna-Barbera's long-running Saturday morning cartoon series Super Friends (which featured many of the other DC superheroes), he did appear in some of the merchandise associated with the show. Other Media *Billy Batson has a non-speaking cameo in the episode "Obsession" from the Kids' WB's Superman: The Animated Series. Actors portraying Captain Marvel make "cameo" appearances in both a dream-sequence from an episode of The Drew Carey Show, and in the Beastie Boys' music video for "Alive". In 2005, Captain Marvel guest starred in the June 11, 2005 episode of Cartoon Network's animated series Justice League Unlimited. The episode, entitled "Clash", featured Jerry O'Connell as the voice of Captain Marvel, with Shane Haboucha as Billy Batson. A climactic fight sequence between Captain Marvel and Superman pays homage to the Superman/Captain Marvel battle from Mark Waid and Alex Ross' Kingdom Come mini-series. Captain Marvel also has a cameo appearance in the 2008 direct-to-video animated film Justice League: The New Frontier. Taito's 1987 Superman arcade game featured 2-player cooperative gameplay, and if two players were active in the game at any time, the second "Superman" was modeled after Captain Marvel in a not-quite-subtle fashion. The same character model was used, but the sprite was colored in red, gold, and white, identical to Captain Marvel. The only inaccuracy was the chest emblem, which remained the traditional Superman "S" as opposed to the Shazam lightning bolt. Captain Marvel made his first official video game appearance as a playable character in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, voiced by Kevin Delaney, for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles. In the story, he encounters and is defeated by Sonya Blade, then he saves Hal Jordan from her. He is continually influenced by the Rage due to Dark Kahn (which he blames on the Mortal Kombat gods interfering with his powers). He is the first to completely understand the Rage thanks to help from the Wizard. He then rallies the DC heroes and villains after defeating Shang Tsung, Scorpion, and Baraka. Captain Marvel is also set to appear in the upcoming video game DC Universe Online. New Line Cinema began development of a Shazam! live-action feature film in the early 2000s. Formerly based on screenplays by William Goldman and Bryan Goluboff, and later being written by John August, with Peter Segal attached as director and former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in talks to appear as Black Adam. The Shazam! film was originally being produced by New Line Cinema, which was absorbed into Warner Bros. during the course of pre-production. Following the success of Warner's film noir-inspired Batman film The Dark Knight and the commercial failure of its lighter, family-friendly Speed Racer during the summer of 2008, August departed from the project after being forced to make the film's script more in line with The Dark Knight's serious tone. See Also *Captain Marvel (Billy Batson)/Gallery Links *http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/William_Batson_(New_Earth) *http://www.comicvine.com/captain-marvel/29-2350/ Category:Justice Society Members Category:Justice League Members Category:Marvel Family Category:Characters